The present technology relates to an illumination apparatus and a display unit that are provided with a light modulation device exhibiting scattering property or transparency to light.
In recent years, a liquid crystal display has drastically progressed in terms of high definition technology and energy saving, and a method that achieves improvement in dark-place contrast by partially modulating light intensity of a backlight has been proposed. The method partially drives light emitting diodes (LEDs) used as a light source of the backlight to modulate backlight light according to a display image. In addition, reduction in thickness is increasingly demanded for a large liquid crystal display, similar to a small liquid crystal display, and an edge light method in which a light source is disposed on an end of a light guide plate has attracted attention, in place of a method in which a cold cathode fluorescent lamp or a LED is disposed directly below a liquid crystal panel. However, it is difficult for the edge light method to perform partial driving, which partially modulates light intensity of the light source.